AJK prime minister threatens predecessor with two slaps

MUZAFFARABAD: Focus on legal points or I will give you two slaps across the face.

These ‘colourful’ words that Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Farooq Haider Khan directed at former AJK premier Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan in the speaker’s chambers here on Monday during a hearing on six references filed against PM Haider.

Former premier Attique did not turn the other cheek at Haider’s comment but rather offered to double up on slaps, saying that he would give the incumbent PM four across the face. Party workers from both sides and other people present in the chamber then had to intervene to defuse the situation.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir on Monday rejected all six references filed by two opposition parties – All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – seeking Haider’s disqualification for his controversial remarks regarding the future of Jammu and Kashmir in a press conference in Islamabad on July 29, which was a day after the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The references were filed by former AJK PM and AJKMC President Attique, Pakistan PPP leader Chaudhry Muhammad Yaseen, and others. Yaseen is also the leader of the Opposition in the AJK Legislative Assembly.

Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir, who was hearing the references against PM Haider, gave a short interim decision after hearing from all parties involved in the references.

The opposition leaders accused Haider of violating his oath while passing the controversial remarks on the future of Kashmir.

Speaker Qadir ultimately turned down all the references in favour of PM Haider and termed him a staunch supporter of accession to Pakistan, adding that the premier has unshakeable faith in Pakistan and the reference against him was irrelevant.

Former PM Khan said that turning down the reference against Haider showed the partiality of the speaker and that he would file the same case in the courts of AJK as he believes Haider should be disqualified for violating his oath.